[pgpony]
download
// 01_download

PGPony for Desktop.

OpenPGP for macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Linux and Windows. Encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify messages and files, manage your keyring, and use a hardware security key over USB — all on device. Linux ships for x86_64 and ARM64, as a .deb, a portable tarball, an AppImage or from the AUR. Like the phone apps: no accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking.

Download for Apple silicon Mac (.dmg)
Download for Intel Mac (.dmg)
Download for Linux (.deb)
Download for Windows (.msi)
version 3.0.2 released 2026-10-05 runtime bundled licence Apache-2.0
Apple silicon Mac · sha256
88fb55799b3efd9a86c6e4defc0a256fb645295f67c21d53f341be6d4c3c5cef
Intel Mac · sha256
748241d96980d4a9338275b467589811cdfbf8d67d291bc40743204f849d5c3e
Linux · sha256
033620e45c3dc9acb260fdafe1da8a45a1b26b3e1b28fc87ce476b5ddc465624
Windows · sha256
354c33aae88539b568ec6acde8fcfad49ab6150c1839f3cbf0c4ed6d1d7e1cfa
More Linux builds
PackageArchsha256
Debian / Ubuntu (.deb) ARM64 278165acd60d26f59fdf46952ddead063b2cdbd9eae7208a73cb374845aae3e7
Portable tarball (.tar.gz) x86_64 63ac82e40d8d1f32aee48e6e0728652f73431270fdb996afd6368acb4582f8f1
Portable tarball (.tar.gz) ARM64 6134b7b9858a974108ecbe0fc599f38a6fc7608032a2e41e3b1ef9185753622d
AppImage x86_64 92cec1dfd7b65e08fb9dc7f7e06d71e47991d899e9426dac7d0cc8b8dc45a338
AppImage ARM64 01d644371f2e4ee9b27a10d6a770604ceeaec97112d67eb5a559b83f9acc0230
Arch Linux (AUR) x86_64 · ARM64 pgpony-bin

The tarball and AppImage are self-contained and need no install step — extract and run bin/PGPony, or make the AppImage executable and run it. Neither registers file associations, because nothing installs a desktop entry for them; the .deb and the AUR package do.

What's new in 3.0.2.
Fixes from bug reports. A post-quantum (ML-DSA) signature saved as a binary .sig file now verifies, as the armored .asc form already did. An encryption subkey whose binding has expired is no longer used as a recipient, matching GnuPG. Post-quantum clear-signed text that ends in a blank line now verifies. Messages that name a v6 post-quantum key by its key ID now decrypt. pgpony sop decrypt now needs --verify-with and --verifications-out together, as the SOP specification says. New in Settings: an option to hide the menu bar or system tray icon.
// 02_not_a_rewrite

The same engine your phone runs.

The desktop app compiles the exact OpenPGP engine the PGPony phone apps ship — packet handling, v4 and v6 (RFC 9580) keys, the post-quantum ML-KEM composite layer in both wire formats, the OpenPGP smart-card stack, MIME — on the same Bouncy Castle version.

  • Encrypt, decrypt, sign, verify. Text, files, and PGP/MIME mail bundles, with signature verification banners and never-overwrite outputs.
  • Post-quantum keys. ML-KEM-768 + X25519 composites in both the IETF (v6) and GnuPG/LibrePGP formats — generate, encrypt and decrypt.
  • Hardware security keys over USB. On-card key generation, decrypt, sign, PIN management and factory reset, over PC/SC.
  • Backups that cross devices. Encrypted .pgpony archives restore to and from the phone apps, with a recovery code.
  • Key discovery. WKD, the verifying keyserver and per-server publishing, with optional Tor routing and an onion mirror.
  • Password store. A read-only pass browser with hardware-key entries, an auto-clearing clipboard and live TOTP.
  • A command line. The pgpony CLI shares the app's keyring, streams stdin to stdout, and never takes a passphrase as a plain flag.
  • Pair with another computer. Move key pairs, public keys or a full backup between two PGPony installs on your local network, confirmed with a six-digit code.
  • Import from GnuPG. Brings in your GnuPG keys and trust, with secret keys coming through gpg itself so they stay protected by their passphrases. Nothing in the GnuPG folder is written.
  • Eleven languages. English, Deutsch, Español, Français, 日本語, 한국어, Português (BR), Русский, Türkçe, Українська and 简体中文, switchable without a restart.
// 03_verify

Check what you downloaded.

Every artifact ships with a detached PGP signature, and each release carries a signed SHA256SUMS covering every installer. A PGP app should sign its own releases with its own kind of key — this one does, using the NorseHorse release key published on this site and over WKD. 

gpg --verify PGPony-macOS.dmg.asc PGPony-macOS.dmg
gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc SHA256SUMS
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
Where the signatures live. The .asc files and SHA256SUMS are attached to the release alongside the installers, so you can verify before you ever run the thing.
// 04_requirements

What it needs, and what your OS will say.

  • Apple silicon Mac. macOS 11+ on Apple silicon
  • Intel Mac. macOS 11+ on an Intel Mac
  • Linux. Debian or Ubuntu, x86-64
  • Windows. Windows 10 or later, x64
  • No Java to install. The runtime is bundled inside each installer.
  • Hardware keys on Linux need the pcscd daemon, which the .deb declares as a dependency and your package manager will pull in.
macOS opens it cleanly. The app is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, with the ticket stapled to the disk image — so it opens without a warning, and without needing a network connection to check.
Windows will warn on first run. The installer is not yet code-signed, so SmartScreen shows an "unrecognized app" prompt — choose More info, then Run anyway. If you would rather not take that on trust, verify the PGP signature and checksum above first. A code-signing certificate is being evaluated.
Linux installs with the dependency. sudo apt install ./PGPony-linux.deb pulls in PC/SC support for hardware keys.
// 05_source

Read it yourself.

The desktop source is published at github.com/norsehorse-dev/PGPonyDesktop under Apache-2.0, alongside the Android app and the shared crypto cores. The OpenPGP engine is vendored verbatim from the Android repository rather than reimplemented, so there is one implementation to audit, not two.